Foreign Language Usage and National and European Identification in the Netherlands

Abstract

Multilingualism is considered a pathway to European identification but might also undermine national identification. We examine regular foreign language usage and two psychological constructs that can explain the relationship between multilingualism and European and national identification in the Netherlands: greater mental openness and a deprovincialized worldview. Using structural equation modeling, the results of two studies conducted with national Dutch samples show that foreign language usage predicted greater mental openness (cultural in Study 1, and cognitive in Study 2), which then predicted greater European identification. Foreign language usage also predicted greater deprovincialization which, in turn, predicted lower national identification.